Clemens’ attorney rips credibility of witness

WASHINGTON – Roger Clemens’ defense attorney attacked the credibility of prosecution witness Brian McNamee on Wednesday, forcing the pitching legend’s former strength coach to admit that he assumed Clemens was already using anabolic steroids in 1998 based solely on an overheard conversation with another player.

Houston lawyer Rusty Hardin peppered the fidgeting 45-year-old with rapid-fire questions during two hours of cross-examination before trial proceedings adjourned to accommodate a personal commitment by one of the jurors.

“Mr. McNamee, do you sometimes just make stuff up?” Hardin asked?

“I didn’t make anything up,” McNamee insisted.

Hardin’s courtroom tactics featured an easel next to the witness stand emblazoned with the words, Mistake, Bad Memory and Lie. Hardin fired off detailed questions designed to showcase contradictory or forgotten statements by McNamee, followed by the challenge: “Where are we going to put that – is that (answer) because of bad memory or a mistake or a lie?”

By the time the day’s proceedings adjourned shortly after noon, Hardin had portrayed McNamee as a profit-seeking opportunist willing to auction off memorabilia made valuable by Clemens’ signature and collaborate on a book, “Death, Taxes, and Mac: Brian McNamee in His Own Words” to profit from first-hand involvement in major league baseball’s steroid era.

Didn’t say ‘steroids’

And Hardin prompted McNamee to concede that Clemens never used the word “steroids” when he allegedly asked McNamee for help with a “booty shot” of medication barely three weeks after the pair first met at spring training with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998.

Players sometimes receive vitamin B-12 shots in their buttocks, Hardin pointed out, suggesting that Clemens’ had been asking McNamee for help with that kind of shot.

McNamee conceded that he had made the “assumption” that Clemens was referring to steroids because he had overheard a mention of steroids in a conversation between Clemens and Jose Canseco, a teammate on the Toronto Blue Jays, in 1998.

“Are you now remembering something you didn’t remember a few minutes ago?” Hardin inquired. “I thought you said that the conversation led you to think he would take steroids?”

“I can’t recall the conversation,” McNamee replied.

“Is it a fair statement that over the last four years, your memory and your statements have sort of evolved over what happened,” Hardin asked?

“Yes sir,” McNamee replied.

McNamee also testified – apparently for the first time – that he had a conversation with Clemens at the star’s Houston home about steroids after the 2003 season with the Yankees. Clemens “wanted to change his workout program and get bigger,” McNamee recalled.

Clemens asked “Do you still have that guy?” – a reference to New York steroid drug supplier Kirk Radomski – McNamee testified.

Why had he never mentioned that to federal investigators or during an interview with investigators for major league baseball’s Mitchell Report? Hardin asked.

“Bad memory,” McNamee replied.

Hardin wound up the proceedings by having McNamee testify about his multifaceted role with Clemens – as a strength coach, a bull pen catcher, a batting practice pitcher and a stretch trainer – as why Clemens kept him on his personal payroll for $5,000 a month during the off-season.

Trying to rebut claims

Hardin told the judge that he intended to rebut prosecution claims that Clemens kept McNamee around solely as a conduit for anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.

McNamee has told federal investigators he injected Clemens with steroids or human growth hormone multiple times between 1998 and 2001.

Clemens, 49, a retired seven time Cy Young Award winner and Houston resident who earned $151 million with four teams over 24 seasons, including the Houston Astros, is accused of lying to Congress in sworn testimony in 2008 for denying he used banned performance enhancing drugs.

Potential penalties upon conviction could reach 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.